State n. , a gang of thieves writ large; a territorial monopolist of compulsion and ultimate decision-making (jurisdiction) which may engage in continual, institutionalized property rights violations and exploitation in the form of expropriation, taxation, and regulation of private property owners; the group within society that claims for itself the exclusive right to rule everyone under a special set of laws that permit it to do to others what everyone else is rightly prohibited from doing, namely aggressing against person and property.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Do Gays Have the Right to Join the Military?

Written October 23, 2010

By Austin White

Most on the left, and even some libertarians, portray the movement to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as freedom fighters trying to end a gross injustice. It is astounding how many people who consider themselves anti-war and pro-peace can be turned into militarist warmongers when the topic of gays in the military comes up. “Dammit! My Aunt Richard has as much of right to bomb Muslims as straight soldiers do! Live free or die!”

Gays who are lobbying to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military are really just trying to obtain for their collective group special privileges from Leviathan to bomb, invade, and occupy other countries while getting a sweet tax-funded salary and college education. They are not lobbying for the right to defend Americans’ freedoms. The military doesn’t do that anymore. Smedley Butler blew the whistle on this fact seventy-five years ago. The military doesn’t defend our freedoms; it suppresses the freedoms and undermines the sovereignty of other peoples in other countries. Our offense apparatus doesn’t defend and uphold the Constitution; just about everything it now does is in violation of it.

Gay individuals fighting to join the military really just want to get in on some of this empire maintenance the central state has going on. They want the magical uniforms, medals, and cool combinations of letters next to their name that elevate them above the rest of society. They want to be part of that sacred cow known as “the troops” that no one is allowed to criticize. They want to get the pro-troop discounts when they go out to eat.

And don’t forget the free stuff. The military is a shining bastion of welfare-statism. Soldiers are provided with everything and all at the expense of other, more productive, people who have been the victims of extortion by government. It’s a socialist paradise where the paternal state provides troops with food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare, and a salary to top it all off. Gays fighting for the privilege to join the military are not only fighting for the right to warmonger, but they’re also your common welfare parasite, like any government employee, trying to get a chunk of the plunder while the getting’s good.

Why the pro-war right is vehemently against repealing DADT is a great mystery. Here we have people who want to join in the empire building so much that they are willing to protest for the privilege to do so when the warfare-state tells them they can’t join. The pro-war, pro-empire, nationalist, American-exceptionalist gays seem to be just what the warfare-state needs.

Libertarians would do more for the future of liberty, peace, and prosperity if they dropped the Goldwater quotes about only needing to be able to shoot straight, abandoned any missions to repeal DADT, and instead adopted the message “Don’t join. Don’t join. Nobody join the military.”

Gays do not have the right to join the military. Neither does anyone else. Soldiers, like all government employees, are the recipients of stolen money. Taxpayer A never signed a contract agreeing to give the government X amount of his paycheck so the government can distribute the amount among soldiers B, C, and D in return for defense service Y that will probably increase taxpayer A’s chance of being a blowback victim.

To all openly gay people demanding to be allowed in the military, and to all straights considering enlistment: join a militia if you’re really concerned about defending your loved ones’ liberties. Don’t join the central government; the institution most responsible for the suppression of liberty.